The sky presents a panoramic show from Pyramid Island in Jasper National Park.
What a wonderful place to watch the stars. Last night I walked out to Pyramid Island in Jasper, via the historic boardwalk built in the 1930s. The site provides a panorama view around the lake and sky.
To the left is the “mainland.” Just left of centre the waxing gibbous Moon is setting over Pyramid Lake.
To the right of centre, the boardwalk leads out the small island, with Pyramid Mountain behind it.
To the right of the frame, a faint aurora glows to the northeast over the still waters of the lake.
This is a 360° panorama shot with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens in portrait orientation, with the segments stitched with PTGui software.
After shooting some panoramas I walked to the end of the island and shot this view looking north and northwest to Pyramid Mountain. The Big Dipper is to the right of the peak, and the aurora lights up the northern horizon at right.
As I shot these images, the night was absolutely quiet. Until the wolves began to howl at the north end of the lake, in mournful howls that echoed across the waters.
It was one of the most spine-chilling moments I’ve experienced in many years of shooting landscapes at night.
– Alan, September 5, 2014 / © 2014 Alan Dyer
The Amazing Sky 
I’ve noticed that in these recent posts you sometimes use your 14 mm (Rokinon?) lens, and other times 15 mm lens for these wonderful panoramas? Any significant difference in this choice?
Hi. While the 14mm rectilinear works great it only has a 104 deg field across the long dimension so can’t include a lot of ground – just a thin strip – if you have the zenith (90 deg up) at the top. The 15mm fisheye includes a lot more ground and PTGui seems to handle the barrel distortion fine. So I’m leaning more toward the 15mm now when you need to include ground well below the horizon.